London man found guilty of fatal mosque van attack

A man who rapidly became obsessed with Muslims is found guilty Thursday of murder, having deliberately driven a van into a group of worshippers near a London mosque.

Darren Osborne, 48, became radicalized over four weeks last year after watching a television program about a child sex ring scandal involving a gang of mainly Muslim men in northern England.

Osborne, from Cardiff, is convicted of murdering 51-year-old Makram Ali and trying to kill others in the Finsbury Park area of north London on June 19.

Prosecutors say they were “clear throughout that this was a terrorist attack.”

Unemployed “loner” Osborne had pleaded not guilty, telling London’s Woolwich Crown Court that a man called “Dave” was driving at the time.

But witnesses recalled Osborne saying: “I’ve done my job, you can kill me now” and “at least I had a proper go” to members of the public in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

The jury of eight women and four men take one hour to convict the father-of-four.

— AFP